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PARIS, France – On the day before the opening of IMEX Frankfurt, one of the biggest trade shows for the international meetings, incentive travel and events industry, TextMaster shares insight on the top five B2B marketing trends that have an impact on tourism brands.

In 2014, businesses need to look at what they are communicating to customers, but also how. According to Thibault Lougnon, CEO of TextMaster, there are five key factors that will shape B2B marketing this year.

Is there a difference in the type of content that resonates with B2C and B2B audiences?

THIBAULT LOUGNON: These two types of customers are like apples and oranges; in B2B, the goal of published content is to help the audience on a professional level. That is why webinars, white papers, case studies and blog articles are the most effective content for reaching this type of customer.

How can content marketing be integrated into the rest of the business?

LOUGNON: Technology has become a crucial component in B2B marketing in the tourism sector. Publishing platforms can be integrated with CRM systems and measurement tools, making it possible to obtain qualified leads and measure engagement.

How should businesses adapt their marketing strategies?

LOUGNON: B2B content, such as white papers, are an investment that take time and money to create. It’s important to have a clear strategy so that resources are used efficiently and a social strategy for getting the most exposure out of each published piece.

Mobile has had an impact on B2C marketing, but has it affected the B2B sector?

LOUGNON: B2B customers in the travel sector are doing just that – travelling. They’re accessing information through mobile devices, meaning that it is crucial that all web content is optimized for mobile viewing.

How has global content marketing evolved?

LOUGNON: We’re seeing businesses go beyond replicating their content in different languages to creating unique content that is relevant to each geographic market.

Travel industry marketers need to be aware of the alarming changes underway at Facebook as it limits organic distribution in favour of paid-for posts, cautions Bronwyn White (pictured below left), co-founder of MyTravelResearch, a market research and marketing firm specialising in the travel, tourism and aviation industries.

“Due to changes at Facebook less than 4% of your company’s fans are now likely to see your company’s news and updates on Facebook. The change in strategy means that Facebook is diminishing your organic reach in favour of paid advertising. It is therefore time for tourism promotion bodies to start building their own online assets — and not acting as tenants without rights on Facebook,” she said.

“What many in the travel industry did not understand was that we were effectively acting as a tenant on rented space not a freeholder. The landlord could come along at anytime and increase the rent or start charging you for amenities. And if you can’t afford the increase, you might have to move out, use less space or have fewer amenities.”

White said that at first, entry costs were low (or non-existent) for social media and impact was high. Facebook provided an easy and quick way to build a tourism brand and a following online. With tourism being a cash-poor sector, this social platform was a panacea. But with posts now reaching as few as 4% of a company’s Facebook fans it wad time for tourism entities to diversify away from it. and build an online presence that tourism bodies own and fully control.

White gave four recommendations for destinations and tourism companies to achieve that:

Create an awesome, informative website or blog with images, videos, and the right tone of voice. Make sure it breathes your brand, which means knowing what your brand is and stands for.

Create content that helps customers at every stage on the path to purchase, from providing a trigger to travel to somewhere they can share feedback everywhere

Make it easy for customers and potential customers to book on your website. According to Tourism Research Australia, less than half of tourism businesses can do instant confirmation bookings on their websites while 10% do not even take email requests via their websites.

Create your own database that you own and control where you can communicate with your list.

She said social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ still have a role to

Logo Facebook (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

play in promoting a company’s blogs and videos. However, it is not advisable to build your entire marketing strategy on a platform that can suddenly be beyond your financial reach. There are free or cheap alternatives to Facebook, such as Google+, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

“It is time to move out of your rented space, get your own place and focus on building your own online real estate portfolio. Once you have done that, add to it on a regular basis, renovate occasionally to freshen up and regularly promote your hard work.”

Three months into 2014 and we’re past making predictions of what the year in social media will look like. We’re living it. The ATTA is focusing on four major trends this month that will shape online life this year — highlighting the ones that will be most relevant for the travel industry, from how to find travelers on social media and speak their language to how to organize your office to best engage socially with your customers.

Condor Travel having well-established itself as a leading tour operators for the South America market is now keen to explore the potential of the Middle East. With 36 years of experience of selling South America, Condor Travel has a strong regional and global presence in markets such as Europe, America and Asia Pacific.

Talking to Travel Daily Middle East about the global marketing plans, Sammy Niego, president and chief executive officer of Condor Travel said: “Asia Pacific is a big market for us as around 30% of our business comes from this region. India is growing but we want to expand our services and educating emerging markets on South America. We adopt a very proactive approach in all our markets as we understand that Latin America is a new market.”

Condor Travel in a bid to expand its offerings in the Middle East has tied up with Phoenix International FZC managed by Darshana Manglani. The objective of having a presence in the region was to expand sales into South America. “I have visited several countries in the Middle East to understand which Latin America product will work well. Having tied up with Phoenix International, we are optimistic about enhancing our presence in the region. We do have some business coming out of the region. However, it is a small percentage which has the potential to grow.”

MARKET FOCUS

Uae-flag (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With regional Middle East carriers connecting into South America, the connectivity exists. The next step is to provide a platform for awareness among the travel trade. “We are confident that we have a product line within Condor that oriented to the Middle East clientele. The products on offer range from the standard to infinity which is our luxury brand.”

Elaborating further Manglani said: “The response from the market has been excellent. Most aganets are aware of Condor Travel due to their regular presence at the ATM for the last few years. This partnership gives them an added edge with a local presence, easy information accessibility and competitive rates. The objective going ahead is to be working hand-in-hand with the travel trade, enhancing awareness, educating customer facing staff and above, facilitating the planning and access to all services and products in South America.”

World Travel Market WTM is launching a wellness tourism programme for its November 2014 edition. It is a sector reportedly growing at a rate of nine per cent annually, compared to the travel and tourism industry’s six per cent.The WTM Wellness Tourism programme, organised by Spafinder Wellness 365 in association with the Global Wellness Tourism Congress, will take place across three days of the show, 4-6 November. The first session on 4 November will explore why wellness tourism is growing faster than the wider travel and tourism industry. The latest research from the sector will also be examined. The second session will aim to define both medical tourism and wellness tourism, which are often confused. And the third session, on 6 November, will look at how national and regional governments and private sector businesses have integrated wellness tourism into their marketing campaigns.Spafinder Wellness 365 Managing Director John Bevan said: “The sector offers a wide range of opportunities for the travel and tourism industry to benefit from and World Travel Market, with more than 50,000 senior industry executives in attendance agreeing more than £2bn in business deals, is the perfect platform to help grow the sector further.”via WTM 2014 launches wellness tourism programme | Conference News.

Admittedly it is early for an ad of the year declaration, but when the brand is Apple you have to sit up and notice. And this one is a doozy: the new ad for iPad Air channels Robin Williams and his verse from “Dead Poets Society” and is all about writing your own verse in life, so to speak.The new ad, titled “Your Verse,” positions the new iPad Air as a tool to dream, create, explore, and travel. “We’re humbled and inspired by what people do with iPad. So we set out to capture some of their stories. What will your verse be?” says the description for the ad on YouTube, which we’ve embedded below.

Although many tourism practitioners believe that they are marketing a destination, it might be more accurate to call travel and tourism: “marketing with a destination”. All too often, travel and tourism professionals are so businesslike that they forget that the basis of a great marketing program is \”a passion-for-excellence.\” Tourism marketing is dependent on four intangibles: good luck, hard work, a sense of integrity, and a passion for people.

Attribution is difficult but digital data can help. Ritesh Gupta, EyeforTravel’s Travel Journalist, gets the low-down and the highbrow from a marketing expert at Travelocity. No marketing investment can be committed to unless it can demonstrate a tangible impact on metrics. Digital advertising is no different. However given its potential to be a high performance medium that delivers intelligent and relevant data, works strongly in its favor.

Indeed, actionable data intelligence today is being converted into targeted marketing actions: SEO templates, content initiatives, link building and so on. So when marketing executives see technology that can process huge quantities of structured and unstructured data, while at the same time gleaning actionable insights, then they are in a better to ‘sell’ campaigns that actually deliver to the rest of the business.

The 2013 Digital IQ Index®: Hotels report assesses the digital performance of 48 U.S. Hotel brands in the Economy, Midscale, Upper Midscale, and Upscale categories across the dimensions of Site, Digital Marketing, Social Media and Mobile

Marketing Challenges International (MCIntl) recently released a white paper that outlines the social media marketing landscape for global destinations in the meetings and conventions industry. Digital and social media are now complementing and, in some cases, replacing traditional marketing strategies due to cost-effectiveness, expansive reach, and the ability to target specific audiences based on preference.

“The market is evolving so rapidly that we have to keep monitoring it”, said Michel Couturier, President, MCIntl. “We took an in-depth look at the social media landscape and extracted strategies for our global clients. We know that research and face-to face meetings are key to success for a destination, but applying effective social media tactics can also enhance the marketability of a destination.”

Using social media as a marketing tool for global destination promotion is standard practice for the leisure market, he said, but convention bureaus have been slower to adopt these new tools. In a phone interview with International Meetings Review, Couturier noted several destinations that have done well with implementing social media with their convention marketing.